In the third inning, it paid off with a double play ground ball that got Lyles out of trouble. But in a tie game in the fifth, Howard made the Astros pay with a two-out double into left field.

“Howard, for me, was struggling the first couple days and wasn’t even getting a good swing, and if I was going to have somebody beat me it was going to be Howard,” DeFrancesco said of the big first baseman who was 3-for-14 in the series before the double.

But in the ninth inning, it was Howard getting the free pass from righthander Wilton Lopez. He represented the go-ahead run and is a significant home run threat, especially against righthanded pitching, so DeFrancesco put said go-ahead run on base for the righthanded Carlos Ruiz with two outs.

“I thought the matchup with Ruiz, Lopie with his stuff could dominate,” DeFrancesco said after Ruiz grounded out weakly to first, ending the game.

Lancaster wins California League
The Astros were able to celebrate a championship over the weekend, as high Class A Lancaster defeated Modesto in a 3-0 sweep to capture the California League title.

The JetHawks roster was a mix of trade acquisitions, including Game 3 winning pitcher Colton Cain from the Wandy Rodriguez trade, a couple of 2012 draft picks and some organizational mainstays. On the roster at various points of the season were first-round picks George Springer, Jiovanni Mier and championship series MVP Delino DeShields Jr., plus standout sluggers Domingo Santana and Telvin Nash.

Lancaster’s title run comes a year after none of the Astros’ eight minor league affiliates even had a winning record.

Injury updates
Fernando Martinez was scratched roughly an hour before the game with inflammation in his right knee. He is expected to miss at least a couple of games, and the problem raises more of an alarm with him than with most because knee problems derailed his tenure with the Mets, leaving him available for the Astros to claim this offseason.

In other injury news, Brett Wallace was held out of the game because of some soreness in a mildly hyperextended elbow. Wallace suffered the injury a few days ago, Tony DeFrancesco said, and it is not expected to be serious.

DeFrancesco also changed course on Jose Altuve’s day off as he got word from Jed Lowrie that Lowrie would need to miss a day because of soreness in his leg. Working Lowrie back slowly from the disabled list was part of the plan, but it meant that Tyler Greene would be playing shortstop rather than spelling Altuve.